TOMRROWLAND - review

TOMORROWLAND
Director: Brad Bird
Cast: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy

Disney's latest, TOMORROWLAND, is set to lose $140 million according to The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm not surprised. If there's a studio that can take a hit like that on an original tentpole, it's Disney. However, if a director like Brad Bird comes to you with an original idea, and George Clooney is attached, you'd probably say yes too.

The film is based on the area of Disneyland - Tomorrowland - based on new technologies, and a better future. Because the film is based on an area of a themepark, rather than a story, the possibilites were endless for what could have been done with this film. Unfortuantely it didn't quite fit the endless possibilities mark, and it was a little bit predictable.

The film begins in 1964, where we meet a young Frank Walker, a boy who still believes anything is possible. Frank meets Athena (Raffey Cassidy), who sees something magical in him and gives him a pin that is a key to a new future. Sadly we don't get to see too much of this magical future, we jump to the present where Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a teenager with a penchant for astronomy, a disregard for authority and a belief that anything is possible, gets the same pin that Frank Walker got in the 60's. This time, the pin only gives her glimpses to the new future before it loses its power.

the magical world Casy sees when she touches the pin

Determined to find out more about the magical place she sees when she touches the pin, she googles it (the only way any of us knows how to work things out anymore) and goes on the hunt to find out more about the pin. She meets robots with lasers, and is rescued by a seemingly ageless Athena, who also turns out to be a robot, and then they both get chased by robots with lasers all the way to now grown up and grumpy Frank's house.

Casey demands Frank take her to this new fancy future, and he refuses, convinced that the whole world is going to end. He sees something in her that he thinks could change the future and so off they go to, well, go and change the future.

Frank has a pretty scary set up to watch the world end

There's ancient rockets blasting out of classic monuments, some great chase scenes and fighting robots, but the script is predictable and the endeing is a bit weak. The plot jumps around quite a lot, and I don't know many kids that would be able to follow along, I certainly found my own concentration wanning, and I spent a decent amount of time clock watching. That's generally a sign for me that a movie isn't good, particularly when it's 2 hours long. If a movie goes for 2 hours and I don't notice, then it's a win for me, but I felt every one of those 120 minutes. 

TOMORROWLAND isn't as big of a flop as LONE RANGER was for Disney or JUPITER ASCENDING was for Warner, but it really didn't deliver what it could have - I mean the endless possibilities of the theme, Brad Bird at the helm, George Clooney and Hugh Laurie in the mix - and it didn't deliver what I was expecting. Save your pennies and go and see one of the other terrific films out at the moment. That's what everyone else is doing and that's why TOMORROWLAND is most likely going to run at a loss for Disney. 

2 out of 5

xoxo

The Blonde Bombshell

SPY - review

SPY
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart, Jason Statham, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale

Recently I've found Melissa McCarthy to be a little bit type cast in the stupid funny comedies, and I was thinking that SPY would be much the same - a bit of a stupid funny comedy. It was a stupid funny comedy, but it was a GOOD stupid funny comedy and McCarthy was wonderful in it.

In their last movie together Feig took a mostly male dominated genre (buddy cop) and put a female spin on it. THE HEAT was a bit of a flop for me, a stupid funny comedy that didn't hit the mark. This time round Feig has put a female spin on the spy movie genre that is again a mostly male dmoniated genre, and this time round it worked.

SPY starts off with a little nod to the traditional nature of spy movies, the woman is desk bound and the strapping young lad is off in the field doing all the dirty work. McCarthy plays the desk bound woman Susan Cooper who is the desk jockey partner, guiding her strapping partner Bradley Fine through his very exciting field missions. She has spent her entire career in his shadow, and when he goes MIA, she gets the opportunity to step up and take her place in the field. She's trained for it, she went through the academy, was quite successful, and then ended up plonked behind the desk of her mentor.

Cooper and Fine at a celebratory dinner 

The film has some amusing parodies about the very unglamours nature of the CIA office, where Cooper is located in the building's basement, and other reviewers are claiming it's a little metaphor for the way Hollywood treats actresses. Now I didn't get that at all, and I did plenty of film analysis and theme studies as an English major, and I did not pick up on that at all, and I don't know that the majority of other people would either.

Cooper is very obviously in love with her partner, Fine, and when he goes MIA, and the rest of the film follows the basic premise of FACE/OFF, in fact they make a little joke about it in the script. There's a super nuke hidden somewhere, and the only person who knows where it's hidden is the daughter of a now dead international arms dealer Rayna (Rose Byrne). Somewhow she has all the identities of the top CIA agents, and the only person left to go after her and save the world is our lovely little desk jockey Susan Cooper.

Crocker giving Cooper her first mission

Cooper's boss, Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) gives her a 'track and report' mission, but somehow Cooper cannot help but get far more involved, leady to a serious of comedic hijinks and spy escapades. She assumes a new identity and infiltrates Rayna's circle and does her best to get to the bottom os the missing and very dangerous nuke. Cooper is surrounded by naysayers who keep telling her she can't do it and biggest of all the naysayers is Agent Rick Ford (Jason Satham) who surprisingly is a comedic genius - who knew?!

the moment of infiltration and an acid martini 

The hilarious hijinks carry on throughout the movie and McCarthy and Statham play off each other beautifully. I didn't think he had it in him to be the funny guy, but he even steals some scenes from McCarthy throughout the film. It was quite a glorious thing to watch. I'd pick a favourite bit, but I can't, it really was an all round funny movie, a little spoofy at times, but I think that was the point.

The film was wonderfully directed, Feig has done an excellent job, and the rest of the casting is great. Byrne, Law, Hart and Cannavale make for a super supporting cast, and the script is full of excellent one liners. There are some super fight and chase scenes, a few SFX, but nothing too OTT. Oh, except maybe the helicopter thing, that might have been a little OTT, but I enjoyed it anyway.

I won't go much further into it, because I want you to enjoy the film for yourself. Don't get me wrong, I don't know that this film is going to be an award winning film, but it's certainly one of the more enjoyable comedies I've seen this year and I would recommend that you go and see it if you get the chance. It's got at least 20-something dollars worth of laughs in it, if not more.

3.5 out of 5

xoxo
The Blonde Bombshell